Job 19:28 But you should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me? What is the meaning of "the root of the matter"? Everything would seem to depend upon the root; if we go wrong there, we go wrong everywhere. Now what do we mean by the "root"? Sometimes we talk of a radical cure. It simply means a root cure; not a cure of symptoms, not an alleviation of pain for the moment, but going right down to the root. If the root is right, the tree is worth saving; if the root is right the man is saved. The root is the man. Not your coat, but your character is you. Oh, if we could look at one another in the root, there would be ten thousand times better men in the world than we seem to think there are. But we cannot get men to look at root ideas, root purposes. Now, the root is you; what you are in the root, that you really are before God. The root is the verb out of which all the other words come. Here is the verb; how am I to treat this long verb? Wring its tail off; that is the first act in true grammar. Take off its tail, throw it away, there is the root left; that is the thing you have got to deal with. Beware of artificial qualifications, beware of human certificates, if above it all is not the signature of God. So the root is the man. Do we always judge so? What do they say about the man? His "oddities." Well? His "eccentricities." Well? His "infirmities." That is a little deeper, but not much. What of it? His "peculiarities" — what of them? You have said nothing yet; that is not criticism. What is the man's purpose in life? Talk of that. "Oh, so good!" Then that is the man, and why should you and I talk about his whimsicalities and his oddities? Here is a man about whom they say, "You would mark, I am sure, his want of polish; you would see that there was a great deal of gaucherie about his whole air and manner." Yes, I saw that. "You observed that he was not metropolitan in his bearing, that there was a good deal of the agricultural districts about him." Yes, there was a good deal of the agricultural districts about him. Well, what more? Are you going to put me off with that judgment? Oh, tell me what he is in his soul, in his root, in his first idea, in his grandest aspiration. That is the man; that is how God judges us. And here is a man about whom they say, "He made a great many slips, you know." Yes, he did. What shall we do with him? Will you say? Why do you not tell me about his truthfulness? We are to be judged by our truthfulness, which is permanent, constant, all-pervasive, and not by our accidental alightings upon some great truth, and naming it. Many a man has told the truth occasionally who is not filled with the spirit of truth. And many men are misunderstood about this matter because we look for the wrong points of judgment. Many a man is misunderstood through shyness; he does not do himself justice. And many a man would be better in private life, would do himself more justice, but for timidity, for fear. He wants to be so good, and so proper in all his outward behaviour and relations, that he stumbles in the very act of trying excessively to walk uprightly. Do not misjudge him; tie is a good soul. And many a man is misunderstood by poverty. He has good judgment, he has a capacious mind, but he has no money, and he thinks that poverty should slink off into the corner. My aim is to show you that we must get to the root of a man before we can know what the man is. Look not upon his outward appearance, but look, as God looks, on his heart. "The root" means more than it seems to mean at first. It is not the fruit, but it must bear fruit, or it must be cut up and burned. You cannot have this wonderful, invisible, inscrutable root in you without having some proof of its existence; you must grow something good. Now, what is your fruit? Here, again, is the danger of wrong social judgment. There is your whole world's judgment upon one another. We are trees of the Lord's right-hand planting, and I believe in fruit trees of all kinds. I do not believe in a Christianity so absolutely hidden that it never makes itself seen or felt or known in any of the outgoing and action of life. What is the root in a man? Christ, Christ received personally, officially, atoningly, in all the grandeur and pathos of His priestly character; not Christ the Example whom I can keep on a shelf, but Christ the living God that I must hide in my heart if I would have Him at all. Here is the hope of heterodoxy. It is in the root. You know you are curious in your view of things, don't you? Well, but what do you think of Christ? "Oh, I love Him. Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee." But do you really and truly love Him? "Yes." Then you are orthodox. (J. Parker, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?WEB: If you say, 'How we will persecute him!' because the root of the matter is found in me, |
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